Given his success as a junior, Wrightsays, “I thought I was entitled to start,”even though he is now quick to say,“Jaye Andrews was better. He wasbetter for our team. And I just couldn’tFrustration mounting, he wantedto quit. He gives great credit toCoach Woollum, who encouragedhim to finish.

Wright says, “I eventually accepted
my role” — an early man off the bench,
playing about a quarter of every game,
averaging just under four points — but
“still not enthusiastically.” That year,
the Bison improved by 10 wins — one
of the best turnarounds in the country.

Woollum says Wright “is tougheron himself than I was. He did a verygood job for us. He’s a very goodcompetitor. … He provided goodleadership for our team.”Because of his own experience,Wright says, “I’m very sensitive to everyguy on our bench, to the last guy.”Jaye Andrews says Wright was abig help when he came onto the teamas a first-year student. Wright was“a model teammate,” he says. “Hewelcomed the four of us who were“Whatever it was” in Wright’ssenior year, Andrews says, “it wasbetween him and the coaches. Noneof that spilled onto the court. Hisleadership on the team was superb.”As was his attire. Woollum saysWright and teammate Ray Moss ’83

“used to try to out-dress each other.Ray would wear a hat. That was thedifference.”Wright remains a style-setter,regularly appearing on any list of “bestdressed” coaches in college sports.Known for a wardrobe that is tasteful,not flamboyant, Wright was featuredin a photo spread published by GQ, themen’s fashion magazine, in December.

hose who played with and coachedWright didn’t see him and think,“He’s a natural coach. Some day he’sgoing to win a championship.”But Flannery, Bucknell’s long-timecoach, says he could see that Wrighthad the passion for basketball, thedrive and the outgoing personality todo well in coaching. Andrews, whowent on to coach basketball for 25years, says neither he nor Wright wasa classic “coach on the floor” duringtheir playing days.

Makoto Fujimura ’83, a renowned
artist now on Bucknell’s Board of
Trustees, did see a glimmer of what
was to come. He encountered Wright
on campus the summer after their
first year and they began exchanging
thoughts about their futures. He says
Wright confessed that he knew he
wasn’t a top-level basketball player,
but he was very clear that he wanted to
become a top-level coach.

right’s coaching philosophy can besummed up in one word: “Attitude.” Hepreaches the simple message: You can’tcontrol what happens to you in a game,Wright also cares passionatelyabout how his players will do in theworld beyond college basketball andwhat kind of men they will become.“His kids would do anything for him,because he does a lot more than justcoach them,” says Flannery.

Kris Jenkins, a senior forward, canattest to that. “We play for each other,”he says. “The family atmosphere iswhat attracted me here. This is abrotherhood that will last for a lifetime,and coach is at the center of that.”right graduated from Bucknellwith degrees in economics andsociology. “I was a good student,”Wright says. But “I was a passionatebasketball player. I wouldn’t say I wasa passionate student.”As Villanova headed to last year’sFinal Four tournament, 15 of hisBucknell buddies made the trip. “Alot of my best friends are still all myfraternity brothers from Sigma Chiand the guys I played basketball with,”Wright says.

Wright “has always remained super-humble,” according to Tim Christie’83, a fraternity mate and friend whomet Wright as a first-year studentliving on the same hall. “He’s as sincereand genuine as it gets. He’ll laugh athimself more than the rest of the guys.His success hasn’t gone to his head.”ow a couple months into thisseason as the defending nationalchampion, Wright looks to avoidthe mistake he admits he made afterreaching his first Final Four in 2009.Back then, he says, “We thought, OK,we did it. We got to the Final Four; nowour goal is to repeat it. At any cost.”“We got away from our core values,”Wright says. “And as our leader, that’son me. Our goals become the resultsand not the process.”That process, he says, is prettysimple: Recruit players who buy intothe Villanova system and get them“playing hard, playing together,playing smart and playing with pride.”From there, he says, the results willtake care of themselves.

Those wishing to know more aboutWright’s formula for success can findit in his first book, Attitude, due outthis spring.As his team runs the court this year,the man who is the reigning nationalchampion basketball coach is applyingthe lessons he learned as a player andstudent at Bucknell: When you arecoaching young men who will soonlaunch onto their path in life, there’smore at stake than just winning thebig game.TNWW